[Suggestion] "Desert" biome did not feel like a desert, nor did it feel dangerous

Comments: 13

• 24 Oct, '21
  testuo Merged

  i was surprised to easy survive in desert, lot of water, no hostile animals exept hyenas, oxyte and trees easily findable....
  i would have expected snakes, scorpions, vultures, and not an oasis every 500m, with trees, or may be oasis with crocodiles at least...
  it was easy to survive, running, despite the sand storm affect players can go through a wooden or stone shelter (bug?)
  the warmth on day and cold on night wasn't affecting me during this travel... (i just had a leather armor suit)
  no elephants, no rhino, no hyppopotams....so sad... looks like the desert is not the NIL's valley, it was empty and fast crossed....no fun at all except the final boss ;)
  make it harder please ! ice was more fun

• 24 Oct, '21
  Thrasos Merged

  The Desert Biome is too easy. There's WAAAY too much water. Plenty of trees and fiber, caves everywhere. Sandstorms barely scratch wood structures. The only thing challenging thing is the sandworm boss. There aren't even any bears in and hyenas are weaker than wolves. The temperature is mild and nice. You don't even need clothing. And be seriously, there's more water in the desert than there is in the temperate zones. It really didn't measure up to the artic. In the Arctic if you didn't bring fiber, you were screwed. If you didn't bring fur armor or better you would freeze to death. If you didn't move fast and keep an eye out for wolves you'd get overrun and killed. If you built a hut for shelter the roof would cave in from snow pilling on top. It was a thrilling challenge. By comparison the desert was a joke. I might even build a vacation home there.

• 25 Oct, '21
  Sage Merged

  The arctic required special equipment (furs at minimum) to enter, and it was wise, if not crucial, to carry fire, shelter, and treatments for frostbite. Resources were very scarce. The area was absolutely littered with wolves and polar bears, and it felt quite dangerous compared to the forest.
  
  The desert offered relatively little challenge. There were occasional hyenas, which seemed to be reskinned wolves, and of course the boss monster. But otherwise the desert was, while beautiful, fairly straightforward. Rivers flowed everywhere, you hardly even needed a canteen. A simple shelter and sips of water kept you cool. The animals were plentiful, and mostly peaceful. Wood, fiber, stone, and ores were readily available, so much so that we simply moved our base out there. Please consider increasing the challenge of this area.

• 25 Oct, '21
  Chrissy Admin

  "[Suggestion] Make desert biome more challenging" (suggested by Sage on 2021-10-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 25 Oct, '21
  HopeSavior

  I 100% agree on this. I honestly only ever saw a few hyenas and not the new predator that seemed to be the flagship for this beta.

• 25 Oct, '21
  Elissa - Producer Admin

  "[Suggestion] Desert Biome too easy" (suggested by Thrasos on 2021-10-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 25 Oct, '21
  Elissa - Producer Admin

  "DESERT SURVIVING IS TOO EASY" (suggested by testuo on 2021-10-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Echo024

  They already said previously the arctic was the hardest biome. Desert isn't any easier than the forest, and water is still ha problem because it doesn't rain. The only reason you think there's more water than the forest is because there are so many rivers which the forest doesn't have. No fresh water is still a big thing. This was only one part of a desert biome, and there's a few biomes. There could by parts where it's nothing but sand for a long time or more trees like this area
  
  I think they actually need a lot more trees, grass and giant cactus or something. Borrow a bit more looks from something like Ark: Scorched Earth. A completely barren desert is SUPER boring, and the arctic is already pretty barren. You don't want just reskinned biomes
  
  I think a big thing is hyenas actually attacking you, a desert counterpart to the bear, and more elephants. I'm not even sure if they're in the game or not because I was looking for hours and never found one

• 26 Oct, '21
  Diamonds

  I think part of it was that it was a lot easier to navigate. Which is good and bad I suppose. I'm bad at direction and navigation generally in real life, which translates to this game as well, it's not too hard for me to get lost. But at least for this beta weekend, because the desert biome was generally more open, I could really kind of use my map and point my compass in the general direction for the most part.
  
  But I also think it comes down to how they've laid it out, as well as the difference in AI. There was overall a general feeling of non threatening, partially because there wasn't much around that was dangerous. Hyena AI seems less aggressive than wolves, and even still, Hyena's though called "vicious pack hunters" like wolves, rarely had a pack with them. Compare that to the Arctic where you'd see a wolf and two or three more, and while fighting, all the sudden here comes more. Oh and Polar Bears. There was no Polar Bear higher threat in the desert.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Diamonds

  To add on ^, If ever I'm navigating in the foresty biome, I still am cautious because if I run too fast and am out of stamina and run into a wolf or a bear, it's still intimidating and can be stressful, so I have to be careful. When navigating in the desert, it being so open with most things visible when there's no storm, you can tell there's nothing to surprise you. And even in my experience, being within 10 feet of a Hyena didn't usually trigger any aggression.
  
  If you remember back with Beta Weekend 2, there were an awful lot of people jazzed up about Bears, so they changed the AI a bit so they seemed to me less territorial and less prone to chase if you got too far away. Before they were like a homing missle once they saw you, and never let up, and their aggression radius and sight radius seemed tweaked.
  
  I trust the developers a lot and think for the smart team they have it will be a simple fix of adding more threats and changing AI a bit. I don't know, I'm not a programmer.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Robert L Scherzer

  I would like to see the desert a bit more harsh as well. The temp swings were nice but would like to see it consume more of the water during the hot parts and heatwaves. Also. I may add a separate thread to the heatwaves. When you go into the river the temp would not drop. If my guy is in the water swimming that would be cool to see the exposure and heat drop off as water is a cooling factor. Sitting in a cabin during a heat wave with the fire place running seem to not bother the health or heat. To get back back on the main subject. the hyena need to be a bit more aggressive. Also a desert predator to go along with that of the bear would be nice.

• 27 Oct, '21
  Diffedge

  Way too easy!!!! Yeah we were seriously disappointed with the amount of water and honestly cliffs. Its like you just cut past the snow biome made it brown and melted all the water to make rivers and lakes everywhere!!!! I don't mind the odd rock formation here and there but lets get some really wide open spaces where we have to really hoof it half a day to find something.

• 10 Nov, '21
  Rick

  Desert is fine and its more of a Desert Oasis
  
  The kind you want seems to already exist when looking at the full map.